Virginia Garcia and her kids were home sweeping the floors and throwing out furniture. Not because they’re moving out—though they’d like to. But because mice and rats have gotten to nearly everything they own.

“When we were putting up our Christmas tree, I saw a shirt moving on the floor,” recalled Garcia (pictured), who lives on 102 Haven St. with her five children.

A closer look at the floor revealed that it was all chewed up—and mice were tugging it from one of the many holes in the wall through which they enter the house. (One of the holes, in the second-floor bathroom, is pictured above).

Part of Garcia’s rent is paid by the federal Section 8 program. The money goes directly to her landlords—poverty landlords Michael Steinbach and Janet Dawson.

Section 8 will pay those rents only if units pass at a regular housing code inspection.

How could the Fair Haven apartment pass such an inspection?

Rafael Ramos, an official with New Haven’s Livable Cities Initiative (LCI), has the same question. His agency inspects apartments for the Section 8 program if the rents are run through the city’s housing authority. LCI inspected Garcia’s apartment at 102 Haven. The apartment failed.

That inspection occurred in June. Ramos refused to allow a prospective family of Section 8 tenants to move there because of multiple housing code violations ranging from a hole in the wall and missing screens to cockroach and rodent infestation, a defective sink, and a leaking water main valve. (Click here to read the report.)

Later Garcia moved in, in August. Because her landlords, Steinbach’s and Dawson’s Diamond Properties, had found another route to get Section 8 approval—with different inspectors.

Garcia’s Section 8 voucher came from the state Department of Social Services. DSS contracts out its management of Section 8 to a Waterbury-based company called J D’Amelia and Associates.

A month after LCI failed the house, J D’Amelia and Associates inspectors approved it for Garcia and her family to move in. The inspectors didn’t make a single comment about the house in their passing report.

Ramos was in the neighborhood recently. Curious to see whether anyone else had moved in, he paid a visit. He was outraged.

“It’s a hack job,” he said of the minimal repairs Diamond had made to the house since he failed it in June. “I refused to pass this house.” He found all the problems he’d cited it for in the past—a lack of carbon monoxide detectors, free-falling windows, a dummy vent, and rampant rodent infestation.

The second-floor bedroom’s heat source was blocked, just as it had been in June. “I have a picture of my head looking at that,” Ramos said. “They didn’t do anything.”

Garcia said she had been in a hurry to move in. “I kinda regret it. I want to get evicted,” she said.

Garcia (pictured) said she had been looking for a place since the beginning of the year, because her old apartment also had rodents. She first saw a “For Rent” sign in front of 102 Haven around March, she recalls. The rental agent she called told her a family was already moving in there.

That family never moved in because Ramos failed the house in June. So the rental agent called her back in June and told her the house was available again. Why? she asked. “It was ‘too complicated’ for that family to move into this house,” she recalled being told.

She didn’t know it had failed a housing inspection. Nor did she know she would be renting from notorious slumlords Dawson and Steinbach; she knew her landlords only as “Diamond Properties Management, LLC.”

That’s the latest name Dawson and Steinbach have chosen to run their rental-property empire. Last year they called themselves “All Star Management,” and before then, the notorious “Apple Management.”

Garcia said she rented from Apple years ago and swore she’d never go back. She hadn’t known about the name change. “I wouldn’t have dealt with Apple Management if I knew it was them,” she said. “Then I started thinking, ‘why do these faces look familiar?’”

Properties all over the city have “For rent” signs on them. There’s no name on the signs; they simply tell passersby to call 203-909-6642. That’s Diamond’s phone number. Properties listed on Craigslist do identify the rental agency as Diamond and refer searches to a rental agent.

Poverty Empire

Steinbach and Dawson, who now live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, owns hundreds of properties in New Haven, many of them rundown and in poor neighborhoods. They have 73 Section 8-subsidized units through the city’s housing authority and another 57 covered by the State DSS and D’Amelia.

They have failed to respond to repeated requests for comment for a series of articles on conditions at their holdings.

Diamond recently told the housing authority of more than 15 units that are newly available for rent for Section 8 tenants. Almost all of them have been involved in a foreclosure lawsuit that has yet to be resolved. The properties are at: 128 Greenwood St., 252-242 Sheffield Ave., 51 Lines St., 37 Rosette St., 121 Greenwood St., 366 Front St., 161 Clay St., 62-64 Derby Ave., 260-262 Orchard St., 869 Elm St. Dawson and Steinbach had taken multiple mortgages out on all of those properties from various lenders.

David Dearborn, spokesman for DSS, said in an email that “Section 8 inspection standards fall under what is termed industry housing quality standards…there may be differences depending on each public ousting authority’s particular administrative policy.

“DSS’s Section 8 contractor reports that it spoke directly with the inspector on this unit. We are advised that the inspector recalls the resident being pleased with the repairs made after the special inspection.

“When they spoke to the inspector last week, he was reportedly confident that there weren’t holes in the walls of this single-family house. They further report that there weren’t holes in the walls at the original inspection.”

Dearborn said that J D’Amelia and Associates is ordering another special inspection of the Haven Street house based on the Independent’s inquiry. In the meantime, LCI inspectors visited the house Thursday and failed it again—for nearly all the reasons Ramos had failed it in October, and in June.

102 Haven has for years been owned by companies regularly drawing the attention of Rafael’s team at LCI. Land records show it was bought by the well-known Anthony Perrotti’s Connecticut Housing Company LLC in 2006 for $130,000. Janet Dawson snapped it up two years later for $85,000. Most recently, it was “sold” to Sun Escape LLC—registered to a Roger H. Dawson, who lives at Janet Dawson’s address in Fort Lauderdale—for $75,000. Sun Escape then used that “sale” as the basis for a $60,000 loan from Natasha Cuyar Llenca, who appears to be an administrative assistant who’s done some work for Diamond Properties. Click here to read more about those transactions.

The tenants weren’t aware of the sale. They said no maintenance has been done on the property to justify a new mortgage in November.

“This is supposed to be a family house,” said Anthony Sanabra (pictured at the top of the story), Garcia’s stepson. “What’s going on?”

Post a Comment

Comments

posted by: anon on December 13, 2011 11:21am

This is absolutely outrageous. This poverty landlord should be run out of town - let them conduct their trade in Milford, Waterbury, West Haven, or Ansonia instead.

posted by: anon on December 13, 2011 11:30am

“The inspectors didn’t make a single comment about the house in their passing report.”

good grief!

“David Dearborn, spokesman for DSS, said in an email that “Section 8 inspection standards fall under what is termed industry housing quality standards…there may be differences depending on each public ousting authority’s particular administrative policy.”

David Dearborn ... knows better. Everyone knows the MO of these characters, including the agents and the complicit inspection companies. Why won’t government leaders grow a spine and debar these companies from obtaining government dollars. I don’t know how these people sleep easy at night knowing that they could protect others who don’t have the bargaining power to demand more from companies like Apple.

It is sad that it is only with the NHI’s persistence that Steinbach et al will be eventually driven out of town.

posted by: Robin on December 13, 2011 11:42am

Kudos to Rafael Ramos and the New Haven Independent. Mr. Ramos, keep doing your job and do not lower your standards.

posted by: cedarhillresident on December 13, 2011 11:46am

I just sent an email to the states att. This is bigger than new haven! this is federal!

posted by: cedarhillresident on December 13, 2011 12:03pm

judical look up on them (this is just a look up of there attorney’s cases) Which many are them if you look

posted by: VD on December 13, 2011 12:13pm

The property owners should be in jail and the faux inspectors should be thoroughly investigated and potentially prosecuted.

Is the Housing Authority also culpritable as well? The vouchers original with them. Do they hold any responsibility beyond that?

posted by: William Kurtz on December 13, 2011 12:32pm

Anon,

....

Do you really think that the towns you mentioned don’t have decrepit properties and slumlords of their own already?

posted by: Astounded on December 13, 2011 12:39pm

Whynis anyone outraged that this woman has 5 children she cant afford shelter for?

posted by: What A Shame!!! on December 13, 2011 12:42pm

I think J D’Amelia should be investigated and sanctioned for this obvious sell-out. ... It’s time to fix the so-called “independent” housing inspectors. These renters deserve better! ...

posted by: Morris Cove Mom on December 13, 2011 1:14pm

This is ridiculous. Those so-called inspectors form Waterbury should be fired, fined, and sued by the state, and DSS should be overhauled immediately by Gov. Malloy.

I used to work at The Residences at Ninth Square on Orange and Crown in New Haven. I now understand why we had such a long waiting list for our low-income apartments. They were luxury, quality apartments, not like the ones you see in this article!

posted by: evelyn on December 13, 2011 1:41pm

I am reading this article with great interest due to the fact that I have just had an inspection of my apartment by this same housing company and my apartment failed due to very small things such as missing carbon detector, ONE free falling window. So it amazes me that they would allow a pass on an infested home that has obvious signs of neglect on the landlords’ part. Maybe it’s the inspectors that should be held accountable and not the entire company.

posted by: really on December 13, 2011 3:41pm

It is a shame that these sumlords have gotten aways with renting apartments like this. But when a family looking to rent a place, goes and checks out an apartment or house, they need to have basic common sense. Really, if you go and see wholes in walls, rodent feces, broken windows, stains on ceilings, etc., Why would you want to rent from them in the first place? HELLO…I myself am a renter, the times I have moved I can say I have not had these problems. ... people (tenants) also need to stop moving into these whole in the wall to then start complaining and whinning.

posted by: call me crazy on December 13, 2011 4:00pm

anon, this is despicable why would you want this going on anywhere!people are people no matter where they live.

posted by: NHresident on December 13, 2011 11:02pm

Slumlords….ripping off banks, government subsidies and taking advantage of low income families…all of this corruption and greed is Sickening. NHI… I am very interested if they are burning the city as well, are these people are current on their property taxes?

posted by: R on December 14, 2011 9:11am

And the necessary response will unfortunately be additional bureaucratic hurdles for law-abiding landlords and tenants. It’s people like this that ruin it for the rest of us.

posted by: Sam on December 14, 2011 10:42am

You all need to realize that subsidized tenants can move. It is the residents choice of where they live. If the tenant is not happy go find a new unit and that unit will be subsidized. Stop blaming the people doing their jobs.

posted by: TC on December 14, 2011 4:25pm

There are rats and mice all over our city schools. If it’s good enough for our children, it’s good enough for our renters, right? Or is that NOT RIGHT???

posted by: b. king on December 14, 2011 6:20pm

I think it’s funny that this article puts Ramos and LCI on a pedestal. they have approved some of the worst apartments in this city, one of which I have just moved out of that they had passed. The place was disgusting.

posted by: petrelis on December 14, 2011 8:20pm

Ive been a landlord for a long time in New Haven. I could write a book. In response to LCI and J d Amelia, they like every company have different quality employees (Inspectors). I’m surprised, very surprised by this report because Ive never noticed a bug difference in their standards. From a landlords perspective, JD amelia has been as tough on me as LCI. The flip side of that is I always go to a perspectives tenants apt. in they want to move into one of mine because how they keep there existing apt. is how mine is going to look down the road. As a landlord I know the difference between landlord neglect and tenant abuse. Often time I amazed at the landlords neglect of their building and its been for both recipients subsidies. Again, I think there’s good and bad inspectors for each. I also think people individually have to take some responsibility. You don’t have to be an inspector if your a renter and looking for an apt. If you see holes and obvious neglect of a building, why would you want to live there. If yyou’veeen a renter for several years, dodoesn’tat make you qualified to know what to look for somewhat. In other words, if you lived in an apt that had mice, well you know if you look in an empty apt. your going to want to look for little holes and droppings in cabinets. Open windows, see if they work, run water, see if it leaks, turn on the stove, open cabinets….Man whether you get subsidy or not, your going to live there so for gods sake, do a little due dildiligenceIf a tenant has a problem call the housing authority. Take some responsibilty. In my opinion, the particular inspector should be accountable, certainly not the whole J.D. amelia company. I work with JD amelia, hamham-denusing and New Haven section 8 on orange st. ThaThat’s two cents - ok maybe a dimes worth